MLB: Hamels outdueled in Phillies' 5-2 loss to Rockies

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, left, tells the home plate umpire that relief pitcher Antonio Bastardo is coming in to face the Colorado Rockies in the eighth inning of the Rockies' 5-2 victory in a baseball game in Denver, Sunday, June 16, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER – Charlie Manuel walked to the Coors Field mound in the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday, allegedly to chat with Cole Hamels. In truth, he was aiming to word-bomb plate umpire Marvin Hudson’s eardrums over a couple of calls.

By this time the Phillies’ fate in what would be a 5-2 loss to the Rockies basically had been sealed. Colorado had a 2-0 lead after a couple of weak hits and a slow RBI grounder, but the steam still was coming from Hamels’ ears over strike-three calls he thought he should have had against Michael Cuddyer and Willin Rosario. Manuel wasn’t trying to cool off Cole. If anything, he wanted a moment to be just as chapped as his hard-luck starter, who saw his record fall to 2-10 as the Phillies (33-37) finished their road trip to Milwaukee, Minnesota and Colorado a woeful 3-7.

“I would get frustrated,” Manuel said, putting himself in Hamels’ shoes. “I might get thrown out of some games. Why would you want to be an easy loser? Do you want to compete and not get mad? What’s wrong with competing and being totally mad and totally into it?”

Since starting the season with two lousy outings, Hamels has a 3.56 ERA in his last 13 starts, an ERA just a hair higher than his career mark, and his walks and hits per nine innings during that stretch actually is below his career mark. Yet the Phillies have gone 2-11 in those starts.

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When you look at the raw data, it’s tough to fathom how that could be. Then every fifth day, Hamels is out there while his offense seems to have forgotten what it is supposed to do with that 2½-pound hunk of wood in its hands.

Last season, Hamels understood why the Phils were a .500 team. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley had missed the first half, and once they returned the Phillies actually played at a playoff-bound pace.

In the southpaw’s eyes, there is no room for rationalization in 2013.

“I think last year, we had a little more in the way of excuses,” Hamels said. “This year, I don’t think we have the excuses. We have to be accountable for what we’re doing. The way that we’re playing, what’s going on … I’m not happy about it.

“The reason I want to be here is to win. I know I’ve had a few bad games early on, but I feel like I’m going out there and trying to win every game. Ultimately, I’m going out there to win, to go to the postseason, to go to the World Series. I know there are a few guys out here who have the same belief, but … when you only get to play every five days it’s harder to sit back and watch.”

Few of the Phillies seem to broadcast their frustration as vividly as Hamels. Manuel not only doesn’t mind seeing Hamels have those emotions spill over, he insinuated that he wished more of his players wore their hearts on their sleeves.

“Hey, he gets upset because he’s trying hard and he wants things to go his way,” Manuel said. “He doesn’t go overboard with it. If he’s staying out there just casually cool and everything, I don’t like that. At least he’s showing some emotions that he wants to get them.”

Asked if he thought enough teammates cared at the same level as him, Hamels gave a heavily qualified response.

“I know there are a quite a few who do,” he said. “The others I just don’t quite know well enough.”

In a familiar storyline, Hamels pitched gamely, even brilliantly. The other guy – in this case, Rockies right-hander Jhoulys Chacin – pitched even better.

Check that: He pitched against the Phillies’ batting order.

Hamels had spotted Colorado a 1-0 lead on a Rosario homer in the second inning. The offense, meanwhile, was getting dominated by Chacin, an under-appreciated starter who has made nine of his 13 starts this season at Coors, yet has the lowest road ERA of any active starting pitcher with 200 or more road innings pitched.

The game zoomed into the seventh-inning stretch. Then things got weird. Kevin Frandsen was able to dive and glove a Carlos Gonzalez grounder to open the inning, but couldn’t bounce up to make a throw.

Then came Cuddyer’s double, a 120-foot flop shot that was a carbon-copy of the one he hit in the Rockies’ six-run first inning the previous night. Facing Rosario again, Hamels threw a two-strike fastball that split the strike zone. Again, Hudson didn’t seem to think so.

Hamels twisted in a 180-degree about-face, screaming obscenities into his glove. He walked 30 feet behind the mound. The entire infield came to the mound to cool him down.

He recovered to get Rosario to ground out meekly to third, but Jordan Pacheco’s swinging-bunt was so weak that Gonzalez was able to score from third with the second run.

Justin DeFratus gave up two runs in the eighth, and they didn’t seem to mean much until, with two outs in the ninth, the Phils got RBI hits from Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard. Rex Brothers had to take over for Chacin and face a reeling Dom Brown, who has three hits in his last 25 at-bats after whiffing against the southpaw to end the game.

Asked if the Phillies, in their present constitution, were a playoff team, Hamels demurred.

“I’m not going to comment on that one,” he said. “You can ask the other guys that one.”